Thanks to a reader who sent me the link, here is a more complete listing of the $675,000 in fines recently imposed by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on hospitals over privacy breaches involving unauthorized access to patient files by employees: 1. Community Hospital of San Bernardino, San Bernardino, San Bernardino County: The hospital…
Category: Health Data
Newly revealed breaches on OCR's site (updated)
Some more breaches that we did not know about have been revealed on OCR’s web site: Occupational Health Partners State: Kansas Approx. # of Individuals Affected: 1,105 Date of Breach: 5/12/10 Type of Breach: Theft Location of Breached Information: Laptop UnitedHealth Group State: Minnesota Approx. # of Individuals Affected: 16,291 Date of Breach: 1/26/10 Type…
NY: Widow Says Cops Leaked Suicide Note
Barbara Leonard reports: A widow claims that state police released her husband’s suicide note the media, along with private letters he left for the family. The widow and her children sued New York State Police Officer Steven Nutting and several Officer Does on constitutional claims in Federal Court. On the night in May 2008 when…
Hospital, uni in blame game over research breach
Julie Robotham reports: Sydney Children’s Hospital and the University of NSW have blamed each other for a spectacular governance failure which saw the medical records of disabled children used in student research without their parents’ consent or approval from either institution. The university said it stopped the research in 2007 when it first came to…
Hospital fined over privacy breaches in days after deaths of Jackson, Fawcett
Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the L. A. Times provides additional details on one of the fines levied on hospitals in California over breaches: Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has been fined $95,000 by state officials for failing to prevent unauthorized employees from accessing patient information, the latest in a series of privacy breaches at the prestigious…
Home health aide indicted for ID theft
The Associated Press reports on another instance of home health aides stealing identity information or credit cards from the vulnerable individuals they are supposed to be caring for: Juliet Rose Levesque, a home healthcare provider from Fall River, stole the identity of a Bristol man for whom she was providing in-home nursing services. Levesque is…